EPT Barcelona: Thater doubles up, others suffer worse fortunes

Already we're down to 67 since the last update, and chips are flying in, out, left and right.

One of those profiting from this free-for-all is Katja Thater, with the distinct help of the dealer, it must be said.

Katja Thater

The Team PokerStars star, a bracelet winner at this year's World Series, got all her chips in pre-flop and found two callers. The flop was all diamonds, ace, nine, blank, and Michael Greco moved his remaining 20,000 or so into the middle.

The other player had enough behind that he could afford to pass and, after squeezing his cards proud enough to flash me a nine, did indeed let them go. Katja showed 5-4 of spades for low pair, no kicker. Greco tabled queens.

"Come on, give me a four," Thater implored, and there was a minimum of hesitation before a four did indeed pop out on the turn, leaving Greco punching the table in frustration.

The ace on the river was seemingly irrelevant, but the other player who had folded his nines, wheeled away in disgust, presumably at the sight of the card that would have given him a larger two pair than Thater.

But that was that. Greco took the side pot, containing only his chips anyway, and Thater was left to stack somewhere in the region of 40,000, which is a definite lifeline.